By Jim Calfa: Promoter Bob Arum says he wants to make a fight between newly undisputed lightweight champion Devin Haney and Vasyl Lomachenko next rather than running it back with George Kambosos Jr.
The 23-year-old Haney now holds the IBF, WBA, WBC, and WBO lightweight titles after defeating Kambosos last Saturday night by a 12-round unanimous decision in the undisputed championship at the Marvel Stadium in Melbourne, Australia.
Lomachenko would need to leave his country to come to the U.S for a fight with Haney, and it’s unknown if Arum will be able to set up the contest.
Haney says he didn’t want Kambosos’s WBC Franchise strap, so that’s not part of his collection of gold.
Arum, who has Haney (28-0, 15 KOs) for another three fights under his Top Rank promotional banner, isn’t keen on a rematch with the dethroned former unified 135-lb champion Kambosos (20-1, 10 KOs) after the way he was soundly beaten by Haney last Saturday night.
“I think that rematch clauses are bad for boxing. I understand why fighters and promoters want them, it’s a business, but it’s bad for the sport,” said Arum per Michael Benson.
There would be far more interest from boxing fans in the U.S in seeing Haney defend against the former three-division world champion Lomachenko (16-2, 11 KOs) than seeing Devin fight Kambosos for a second time.
Kambosos, 28, has a rematch clause in his contract and has already told the media that he intends on using it to force a second fight with Haney.
Whether Kambosos’ promoter Lou DiBella will choose to talk him out of that or not is uncertain at this time.
A rematch with Haney might be as good as it gets for Kambosos because he’s probably not going to make the same kind of dough fighting one of the contenders in the lightweight division after Haney schooled him.
Lomachenko last fought in December, defeating Richard Commey by a one-sided 12-round decision. He hasn’t been out of the ring long enough for a lot of ring rust to develop, so a warm-up fight wouldn’t be needed to get the two-time Olympic gold medalist ready.
The only problem would be getting Kambosos to step aside to let the Haney vs. Lomachenko fight occur. Perhaps if Arum can make a deal with DiBella to have Kambosos promised the winner of the Haney-Lomachenko fight, that might work.
In the meantime, Kambosos could take a confidence builder type of match-up against a journeyman level fighter to get a win under his belt before facing the Haney vs. Lomachenko winner.
It wouldn’t be a good idea for Kambosos to fight a top-tier contender at lightweight because they’ll surely follow the blueprint created by Haney to box him from a distance and take advantage of the glaring flaws in his game.
